MANAGING YOUR PERSONAL WEB-SITE This is general information for faculty wanting to manage their personal web site. LOCATION OF WEB-SITE The files for your web-site are stored in a hidden subdirectory of your HP- Unix account. To transfer to this subdirectory, use the command cd .public-html To list the files in this subdirectory, after transferring to it, use the command ls For additional details on these files, use ls -l WEB DOCUMENTS Web files can be stored in many formats, with html format being the most flexible. Other commonly used formats are Ascii text, postscript (ps), and Adobe Acrobat pdf format. Graphics files have many possible formats, and generally I recommend people use jpg format. The main file controlling your web-site is the file index.html and it is stored in your web-site subdirectory. This file can be edited with any standard screen editor on a PC, Mac, or Unix workstation; but you need to understand a bit about html (hypertext markup language) to take this approach to editing an html file. Another approach is to edit it (and other html files) using a special editor for such files. For example, Netscape comes with such an editor, called Netscape Composer, and it is accessible thru Netscape. Other common webpage editors include Dreamweaver and Microsoft FrontPage. Both Connie Straub and Cindy Vanark have FrontPage on their computers. Another approach is to use one of the more recent versions of Microsoft Word and then save the file as an html file. To get a better idea of how to do various tasks in native html, look at the html source for a webpage you admire. To do this on Internet Explorer, go to "View" at the top line and then click on "Source". With Netscape, go to "View" and then click on "Page Source". I recommend preparing your vitae as a text file or as a pdf file. The web brousers most people have are configured to read such files with no difficulty. Reading a ps file on a PC or Mac takes a bit more trouble for most people. Syllabi (and other class materials) can be prepared as html files, text files, pdf files, or postscript files. Again, I recommend against using postscript files. HOW TO STORE YOUR FILES. After preparing your files, you must store them into the subdirectory named ".public-html". This can be done in a number of ways. If you are preparing the documents from your Unix account, merely use the mv command to move them into the web-site subdirectory. If you are preparing the file from your PC and if it is on the network in MLH, then you can use file manager to transfer the file (or files) from the PC to the web-site subdirectory. To do this most easily, you should have a drive G accessible from your PC. Then on drive G, transfer to the subdirectory .public-html. Then transfer the files from your PC to the web-site subdirectory. If you are using a Mac or are preparing the files from outside of MLH, then you should use the ftp command to move the files from your machine to the web-site subdirectory on our HP-Unix system. FILE PRIVILEGES All Unix files possess a set of "privileges" or "permissions", and these must be set properly in order to have your web documents be accessible from a web brouser. To see the privileges for a file, type the command ls -l filename You will then see something like the following, which is from using this command for one of my files. For example, the command ls -l index.html produced the output -rw-r--r-- 1 atkinson faculty 5024 Feb 25 22:57 index.html The permissions are at the beginning of this line, and they refer to the owner of the file (labelled u for user), the group with special privileges for the file (labelled g for group), and the remainder of the world (labelled o for other). There are 10 possible entries. The first (blank above) is the letter d if the name is that of a subdirectory. The remaining 9 entries are for u, g, and o, in that order. The entries 2-4 are listing the read (r), write (w), and execute (x) privileges for the owner (u), and they are given in that order. Thus above in my example, the owner (me) has read and write permission for the file named "index.html". Entries 5-7 are for the group (g), and entries 8-10 are for other (o). Above g and o have read privileges for this file. To be accessible from the web, THE PERMISSIONS FOR A FILE MUST BE SET TO READ (r) for both the group (g) and the world (o). To do this, use the following command chmod go+r filename For example, I would use chmod go+r index.html to make "index.html" accessible from the web. This command must be given from within the subdirectory .public-html. Appended below is an earlier file describing web-page editing and how to set up your PC so as to more easily access and modify files on your HP- Unix account. It discusses other ways of setting the needed read privileges by using FrontPage NOTES ON WEB PAGE EDITING Each faculty member has a personal web page, linked from the departmental web page listing faculty members and also from the pages for the various research groups in the department. For those who would like to edit their personal web pages, there are several possible directions. I will describe the simplest approach, using Netscape. With Netscape there is a web editing tool called "Composer". It is quite easy to use, being much like MS Word or most other word processing programs. It can be accessed in two ways. 1. For Windows 95 or 98, go to the "Start"menu, then to "Programs", then to the folder for "Netscape Communicator", and then click on "Netscape Composer". 2. More easily, activate your Netscape brouser. In the lower right corner is a small icon for Composer. On my Netscape brouser, it is the rightmost such icon. Click on this icon. The next stage varies with the machine you are using. I. Users of PCs. For convenience in creating and modifying all web files stored in the Unix sub-directory .public-html, you need a direct access to this subdirectory. You need to be able to access your Unix account thru drive P on your PC. This is the setting for accessing the "homepage" of your Unix account. If you do not have this set up, see the directions given below for doing so. Having activated Composer, open the file for your home page. To do so, proceed as follows. 1. Click on the icon for opening a folder, or go to "File" and "Open Page". Select drive P. 2. Select the file named "index.html". You can now edit this file from Composer. When done, save the file. You can view the file saved using your Netscape brouser. Web files MODIFIED using Netscape Composer have their Unix file privileges (as described earlier in this document) left unchanged. Web files CREATED using Netscape Composer must have their Unix privileges set correctly by going directly into the subdirectory .public-html and altering the file privileges using the Unix chmod command, as described earlier. For more sophisticated web editing, I recommend using Microsoft Frontpage. It can be purchased for around $70 at the local bookstores. With it you can also create new web pages on your PC and save them directly to your Unix web site subdirectory. The office staff are all being equipped with MS Frontpage. Using it and working directly with drive P on your PC, you do not need to worry about file privileges being set correctly, regardless of whether the file is being modified or created. II. Users of Unix workstations. Activate Composer from within the Netscape brouser, by clicking on the icon as described earlier. Then proceed as follows. 1. Click on the icon for opening a folder, or go to "File" and "Open Page". Select the subdirectory ".public-html". 2. Select the file named "index.html". If you want to edit existing html files (web files), then Netscape Composer is a reasonable tool, directed at low level editing. MAPPING A PC DRIVE TO YOUR UNIX WEB PAGE SUBDIRECTORY To make it easier to access your web page documents from programs on your PC, proceed as follows. Using your mouse, position the cursor over the icon named "My Computer". Click on it once with the right button. Select "Map Network Drive" and click on it with your left mouse button. A small window will appear, entitled "Map Network Drive". In the first of its windows, the "Drive" window, select drive P if it is available. Otherwise, choose some other letter that has not been used previously. In the second window, the "Path" window, type the following: \\PCNFS\HOMEPAGE Finally, make sure the small window labeled "Reconnect at logon" is checked. Having done all of this, click on OK. In the future, you can edit files stored in your web subdirectory on your Unix account by first selecting drive P and then selecting the file to be edited.